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A Leopard Mauling in Mozambique

(posted August 04, 2006)

Still another PH has been attacked in the bush this season. This time, a leopard in Mozambique has mauled Zimbabwean PH Wayne Williamson. The attack occurred this past Tuesday in northwest Mozambique near Lake Cabora Bassa, where Williamson was contract-hunting for another company. Seems a French PH and his client had wounded a leopard the night before and Williamson went to help follow it up. Here’s how Williamson’s wife described what happened in an e-mail:

“Wayne was crouching down when it came; it all happened very fast. The leopard hooked him on the right side of his head and pulled his head into his mouth. Wayne somehow got his hand and arm into its mouth to try and get it to stop eating his head. Wayne managed to throw the leopard off, and the French PH shot it.

“Wayne then wrapped up his head on his own, organized the others to get the vehicle and walked there on his own. They drove back to camp, got him into a boat, then flew to Kariba for fuel and on into Bulawayo.”

Williamson, we are told, sustained serious lacerations to the scalp and to his left hand and arm. He also fractured his left hand somehow in the process of prying the leopard’s jaws off his head. Fortunately, his wife says, before helping with the leopard follow-up, Williamson had the presence of mind to duct-tape a towel around his left arm and put a leather glove over that hand. Had he not done so, the injuries would have been much worse. Luckily, he avoided injuries to his eyes and face.

When we spoke to Williamson’s wife she said he was in cheerful spirits, and that he is expected to fully recover and be back to the bush in a couple of months. She nervously joked about his “CAT scan” showing no damage to his skull. She says he is currently undergoing more surgery to clean out infected tissues. After that, he will leave for Johannesburg to complete his recovery.

Here at The Hunting Report, we have not been able to find out yet the name of the company Wiliamson was contract-hunting with, or the name of the French PH whose client wounded the leopard to begin with. We also don’t know why Williamson, instead of the French PH, was in the line of fire when the cat attacked. The entire circumstances of the incident are also hazy at best at this point. Rest assured, we are still making inquiries. We expect to have the full story in next month’s issue of The Hunting Report. – Barbara Crown.

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